A Vivienne Westwood Floral Frock and Purple Velvet Jacket…

Good afternoon lovers.  Now this wedding is coming at you from a place called 'fun' and 'originality'.  Amy and Josh tied the knot on 30th December 2012, to reflect their love of Christmas.  The couple chose Ripley Castle on the outskirts of Harrogate in North Yorkshire as glamorous backdrop for the day and there were more than a few glamorous designer touches along the way.

The lovely photographers James and Lianne sent in these images by the way.

"My
dress was from the Vivienne Westwood SS12 collection; it wasn’t
specifically a wedding dress, more a beautiful evening gown which I
preferred – I’d never really dreamed of a big white wedding dress!

I was
a regular visitor to the Mayfair boutique and had my eye on the dress,
but wasn’t sure if it would suit me. Then I took my Mum in to try it on,
and when I walked out of the changing room we all agreed that it was an
impossible dress to top!"

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2013, James and Lianne

Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

"The staff in the Vivienne Westwood store were fantastic – they
even kept the dress in their office for me until I could safely
transport it to Yorkshire, as I had nowhere to hide it from Josh in our
London flat!
  I loved the print on the dress; deep purple and
dusky pink roses, and the cut was amazing, plus it was the perfect
dancing dress! For the ceremony and drinks reception I wore the dusky pink
shrug pictured above over the dress.
" 

Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

"We worked with the in-house florist Sheila at  Ripley Castle who was fantastic. I wanted flowers with a vintage feel,
and she showed me Amnesia roses which are dusky pink with a touch of
green at the ends of the petals – they looked beautiful against my
dress. I had pink and ivory roses in my bouquet, and Josh had a pink
rose for his buttonhole.

Sheila created a gorgeous long and low
arrangement for our ceremony room, and then we wanted maximum impact on
our dining table as we had all 30 guests around one oval table, so she
did five huge candelabras with our chosen flowers weaved around them.
" 

 Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

"I chose a hand-crafted flower crown from Whichgoose,
a gorgeous bridal store on Etsy
which had ivory flowers and an elegant side veil. Emily the designer was
lovely, she had actually created the headpiece for her own wedding but
decided it wasn’t her style – and luckily I got in first when she listed
it for sale! I wore the
Whichgoose headpiece from the ceremony until
the first dance, and then switched to a Butler and Wilson pearl bow
headband – a little change for the dancefloor!
"

Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

"My bridal jewellery came from Kate Spade;
I’m a huge fan of the New York brand and was thrilled to discover they
had a wedding range in the collection! My necklace was gold and had a
very subtle ‘Mrs’ word on the chain, the earrings were gold bows with a
little pearl drop, and the bracelet was a gold bow with diamantes. Very
subtle – I thought that my dress was enough of a statement!"

Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

"We first met at University and got together when Josh had
graduated and I was in my final year. When I finished Uni we moved to
New York for three months and completely fell in love with the city –
seven years later we went back for a city break and Josh popped the
question on our final night!

We got engaged in November 2011; we weren’t
in a rush to get married but when we visited Ripley the following
Easter we knew we had found our perfect venue, and luckily they had
availability over the Christmas period. We had eight months to plan and
organise the big day and it was just right; long enough to get
everything right, but not too long to wait!"


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

"We lived in Harrogate in our early twenties and always loved the
area, plus it was a good distance between my (Amy’s) family and friends
in Carlisle, and London where we live now. We loved the idea of having a
cosy wedding which started in the late afternoon, so that guests could
wear glamorous evening outfits.

We
literally planned every element of the wedding ourselves; it was important to us
that every little detail reflected our personal style! We also asked our
family to get involved in areas that they enjoyed – my Dad helped me
choose all the classical music for our String trio, my Stepmum is really
crafty and created festive centrepieces and little favours, Josh’s Mum
was in charge of flowers, and my Mum and Stepdad brewed their own brandy
specially for the event!"

Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

"I was driven from my hotel to the Castle in a white
Cadillac by my Stepfather – luckily it was a very short drive as the
vintage car was quite temperamental! It was a gorgeous car and looked
great in the photos – my parents even tied purple and silver ribbon to
it to match the colour scheme."


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

"Josh’s suit was inspired by a stunning Tom Ford purple
velvet jacket we came across in Selfridges. We both fell in love with
it, but the pricetag was slightly out of budget! Josh’s Dad was
recommended a  tailor in Shoreditch, Gresham Blakes, and they crafted a
custom-fit purple velvet jacket for him and even embroidered our names
and the date of the wedding in the inside pocket. 
Josh always
wanted to stand out on his wedding day, and I think he managed it! IN
fact, the velvet jacket trend was so popular that he persuaded most of
the male guests to don velvet too – and his sister Sophie!

Josh’s best man Rich wore a burgundy Topman velvet jacket, with the
same black bow tie as Josh. He topped off his outfit with black
‘moustache’ cufflinks from Tatty Devine."

Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

"Josh’s
little extras were more extravagant than mine! Starting from the
bottom, he wore Jimmy Choo black glittery loafers, with Vivienne
Westwood
socks that I gave him as a little wedding morning gift. For
jewellery, he wore a navy Hermes bracelet which was a wedding present
from his parents, and his cuff links were Marc Jacobs – another little
treat from me!"

Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding 

"We hired  James and Lianne to capture our
big day, and it was one of the most important and best decisions we
made. We didn’t want stiff and posed wedding photos, and searched for a
long time to find photographers who did something a little different. We
found James and Lianne through their brilliant website, and their
service was amazing from start to finish.

 

We had a fun morning with them
at Betty’s Tearooms for our engagement shoot and they were brilliant on
the wedding day, James came to me and captured all the girly gossip and
the hair and makeup, and
Lianne took fantastic shots of Josh getting
ready in the family home. All our guests loved them and the wedding
photographs completely blew us away – they captured every little detail
of the day. It was also so nice of them to blog about our wedding and
feature a selection of the photos from start to finish – we sent the
link to all our guests and it gives a great rundown of the day."

Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

"One of my favourite parts was getting ready with my
bridesmaid and my Mum; everyone said I was unnaturally calm but I was
just enjoying every moment! We drank champagne, had our hair and makeup
done and listened to Michael Buble’s Christmas album. I loved it!

Then
my Dad and brother arrived and that was lovely too, I’ll never forget my
Dad’s face when I walked in wearing my wedding dres
s."


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

"One of my oldest friends Jill was my bridesmaid, and we know each other’s style so well that it was really easy to choose her dress! We picked a lovely Reiss evening dress in dusky pink which matched well with my dress.

My father gave me away, wearing a lovely kilt!  I walked
down the aisle to Kylie Minogue ‘I Believe in You’ – the String Trio
arranged this specially at our request as we both love the song."


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

"Another favourite part of the day for me was seeing Josh for the first time at the end of the
aisle; after all the build up it was reassuring to see he was as
nervous as me!
  Then the two drinks receptions were great fun –
the first after the ceremony was lovely to catch up with everyone and
talk about the ceremony, and then at night the room filled up with even
more of our favourite people!"


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding
 

"We had two readings, given my one of our best friends Tim and
Josh’s sister Verity. The first reading was an extract from the film
Love Actually – we love this film and as it’s set at Christmas, it was a
nice fit:

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the
world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General
opinion is starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and
greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere.
Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always
there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives,
boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. If you look for it, I've got a
sneaking suspicion… love actually is all around.
 

We
are walking down the street, holding hands. There’s a playground at the
end of the block and I run to the swings and climb on, and Henry takes
the one next to me, facing the opposite direction, and we swing higher
and higher, passing each other, sometimes in sync and sometimes
streaming past each other so fast it seems like we’re going to collide,
and we laugh, and laugh, and nothing can ever be sad, no one can be
lost,  or far away: right now we are here, and nothing can mar our
perfection, or steal the joy of this perfect moment.”


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

"Josh and I have always been big fans of Betty’s Tearooms in Harrogate,
in particular their fondant fancies. So when we found out that they
created a fondant fancy wedding cake, we looked no further! The top
layer of the cake was chocolate, and then we had 40 fondant fancies each
iced with a purple and silver crown. Betty’s were brilliant to work
with, we were amazed at the level of detail – they even sent us four
fondant fancy iced options by special delivery to choose from! 
And we had a custom made topper from Miss Cake created in the shape of ‘Mr and Mrs Tarrant’." 


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

"Our first dance was to ‘Read My Mind’ by The Killers. It’s a favourite of ours and the lyrics are quite meaningful."


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding


Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding
 

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Have fun during the planning and
don’t see it as a chore! Divide up the jobs between you and your fiancée
and set aside time each week to work through the jobs list – Josh and I
would sit down with a coffee on a Saturday morning and do our ‘wedmin’
(wedding admin) and it became a fun way to start the weekend.
  Also,
don’t feel that you have to go down certain routes because it’s what
people expect.

A huge wedding didn’t appeal to us, so from the start we
made it clear that we were having a very small ceremony (only 30 guests)
and that the evening ‘do would be the main party. We worried that
people wouldn’t travel just for a night-time party, especially the day
before New Year’s Eve, but we were amazed that almost everyone did and
they all had a brilliant time.

Also, I love everything about your Love My Dress!  It’s got such
varied content and your archives are really good to trawl through for
inspiration. Love your listings too – I found lots of potential
suppliers on there. Keep up the good work!
 

Vivienne Westwood Dress Christmas Wedding

I love seeing a couple let go and have so much fun on their wedding day – and the Groom knows how to dress in style! I love every aspect of his outfit!

Huge congratulations Amy and Josh, and many thanks for so happily sharing your wedding day details with our readers. You both looked like you had an absolute ball. 

Big thanks also to photographers James and Lianne and for so kindly submitting these images.

Are any of our readers going for a less traditional bridal outfit like Amy did? Something they could easily wear again? I'd love to hear from you.

With much love,

Annabel

Heart

Photographer – James and Lianne
Venue – Ripley Castle
Wedding Dress – Vivienne Westwood SS12 collection
Veil/Headpiece – Whichgoose
Brides' shoes – Rachel Simpson shoes
Bride's accessories – Kate Spade;
Groom's Attire – Gresham Blakes purple
velvet jacket via
Selfridges + black glittery loafers via Jimmy Choo + Vivienne
Westwood
socks + Hermes bracelet + Marc Jacobs cufflinks

Bridesmaids – Reiss
Flowers – In-house Florist at Ripley Castle
Cake – Betty’s Tearooms in Harrogate
Transport – Cadillac
Entertainment – Simply Strings + Scott Bramley

 

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

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